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Short Passes 17 June

Short Passes in Club Rugby’s weekly news in briefs, happenings and noticeboard round-up Email editor@clubrugby.co.nz if you want to contribute or have some news.

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The Hutt Valley High School First XV plays Whanganui High School at 11.30am on Wednesday as part of their annual sports exchange.

The only other mid-week rugby in Wellington this week is secondary schoolgirls rugby on Wednesday. The feature match will be between St Mary’s College and a combined Porirua College/Aotea College team at Bernie Wood Artificial at 5.30pm.

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A thriller at the Polo Ground on Saturday in the Women’s game between big guns Oriental-Rongotai and Northern United.

An even game came alive in the last 5 minutes, with Norths scoring what could have been the match-winning try from an attack down the left side of the field. This put Norths ahead 20-14. Ories launched a last-gasp assault and were rewarded with a try to flanker Sinead Ryder. Second five-eighth Amanda Rasch calmly converted from near the sideline for the 21-20 win.

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Newly-minted Ories Women centurion Joanah Ngan-Woo and tryscoring machine Ayesha Leti-l’iga, along with MSP’s Marcelle Parkes, have jetted off to the Black Ferns campaign in North America. They aren’t the only Wellington Women’s players on international duty this week, with Petone’s Sieni Mose swapping codes to play for Samoa in Saturday’s match against the Kiwi Ferns.

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A breakdown of Swindale Shield and Jubilee and Hardham Cup (up to this past weekend) try scoring by jersey number. Substitutes are put together as their own category, as it’s not always clear what position they are playing:

Fans on the hill at Maoribank Park.
Position number. 1: 16 tries scored
2: 25
3: 18
4: 16
5: 26
6: 26
7: 34
8: 67
9:28
10:44
11: 89
12: 48
13: 61
14: 73
15: 30
Substitutes: 71
Penalty try: 5

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The Jaguares have won nine of their last 10, including five in a row. Chiefs have won three in a row, which includes their largest victory of the season and a 20-point come-from-behind victory against the Crusaders. Surely Jaguares v Chiefs is the pick of the Super Rugby playoffs?

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The Lyndhurst Park ducks were back on Saturday, deciding that conditions were ideal for them. Our correspondent reports that their running lines are good, but their situational awareness remains lacking.

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Kemara Hauiti-Parapara leads the Billy Wallace best and fairest competition for Tawa by seven points and started the last 8 games of the 2018 season for the Lions. Why isn’t he in the Hurricanes? Surely Kem is a better choice of back up halfback compared with the underwhelming Finlay Christie, who has signed with the Blues in 2020?

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Wainuiomata have won seven Premier games in a row, twice since 2012 they had won six games in a row.

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The average number of points required to reach the Jubilee Cup semi-finals in the past five seasons has been 18 points.

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Teariki Ben-Nicholas (12), Luca Rees (17) and Tupou Sopoaga 11, are No.8’s who have scored 40 tries between them this season.

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The Wellington Axemen Premier Reserves finally opened their account with their win over Avalon on Saturday, taking their first win of the season. That success leaves three teams winless on the year in the top-three grades; Pare-Plim’s Premier Reserves, Poneke’s Women, and Wainuiomata’s Colts, and hopefully they can all address that before season’s end.

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In a similar vein, Saturday’s narrow Hardham Cup loss to the Upper Hutt Rams saw Paremata-Plimmerton pick up their first bonus point of the season, though they and Johnsonville are still searching for their first four-try bonuses.

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Following a recent trial, a Wellington U19s training squad was announced on social media last week. The players are:

Tai Bryce (HOBM); PJ Sheck (Johnsonville); Andre Hart, Kyle Devine, Keelan Whitman, Leo Thompson, Liam McAree, Tasipale Valavala, Tyrone Thompson (MSP); Junior Time-Taotua, Kienan Higgins (Norths); Caleb Delany, Jacob De Roo, Luke Gilbert, Shamus Langton, Taine Plumtree (OBU); Malo Tevita-Manuao, Steven Vaá (Ories); Cameron Ferreira, Niko Manaena, Tali Sina (Petone); Caleb Robson (Poneke), Caleb Cavubati, Hugo Plummer, Jack Sturmey, Josh Mallon, Swade Brightwell (Tawa); Iona Apineru, Josh Southall, Kaleb Sinclair, Luke Chisholm (Upper Hutt); Sam Smith (Wainuiomata); Angelo Smith, Isaac Bracewell, Jayden Kini, Philip Elo (Wellington)

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Wellington is the latest in a growing number of provincial rugby unions to remove under-13 representative rugby from their programme. A move already made in North Harbour, Canterbury, Auckland, Southland, Otago, South Canterbury, Taranaki and Tasman, the youngest representative team in the Wellington Rugby Football Union will be under-16. WRFU head of community rugby Will Caccia-Birch said the change was made as there was clear evidence that the selection or non-selection of players at under-13 level was considered counter-productive in increasing and retaining players at junior level. Club Rugby supports this move, one reason being the smaller player needs encouragement to stay in the game in his early teenaged years. Last year’s Wellington U13s that beat Auckland in their annual match at Porirua Park was a sizable outfit.

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Iconic All Black Sir Brian Lochore is battling bowel cancer, New Zealand Rugby have confirmed. Lochore, 78, was born in Masterton and made his test debut for the All Blacks on 4 January 1964 against England in London. His last test was on 31 July 1971 against the visiting British and Irish Lions in Wellington. According to Steve Tew, outgoing chief executive of NZR, the 78-year-old former All Blacks captain will start treatment soon. Read about Brian Lochore’s career as told to Club Rugby’s Adam Julian HERE 

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The Black Ferns Sevens team lost 10-26 to the USA in the final of their latest Women’s series tournament overnight in France, but still claimed their fifth series title.

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A 29-29 draw between the Wellington College and Kapiti College First XVs on Saturday – how so? Wellington College were down a few players through injury and Short Passes has been told they were also penalised off the park by the parochial local referee. Two yellow cards, both of dubious nature were given to them. Another keen result was HIBs‘ 8-7 win over Aotea College, coming a few days after Aotea had beaten Tawa College for the Beard Trophy and Co-ed Cup semi-final. The round also saw another tough arm wrestle with St Pat’s Town retaining the competition lead but only just in beating Rongotai College 10-7

Wellington College hosts competition favourites Scots College this coming Saturday in the Premiership feature match of the round.

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All Blacks prop Tyrel Lomax has signed a four-year deal with the Hurricanes through until at least 2023. Lomax, who has strong ties to Wellington with extended family living in Wainuiomata, will join the Hurricanes ahead of the 2020 Super Rugby competition. The son of former Kiwis international John Lomax, who played 15 tests for the Kiwis and had a long professional league career with the Canberra Raiders, North Queensland Cowboys and Melbourne Storm, Lomax has made a significant impression since he shifted back to New Zealand to pursue a long held ambition to be an All Black. After making his Super Rugby debut for the Melbourne Rebels in 2017, the 23-year-old joined Tasman in the 2017 NPC.

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Rugby historian Clive Akers was named the local historian of the year by the Palmerston North Heritage Trust. Akers, 65, has published seven books since he started in 1981 and has edited the New Zealand Rugby Almanack since 1994. Most of his work has been about rugby, but he has completed two books with a wider view: Monro: The Life and Times of the Man Who Gave New Zealand Rugby and Balls, Bullets and Boots.

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